Bernina sewing machine quilting a block showing a "box" with surrounding walls, all done in a 3-D effect through use of dark/medium/light shades. Other visible blocks are in pinks and blues.

Torture!

I made this quilt top several months ago and then waffled forever (as usual for me) about how I wanted to machine quilt it, finally getting some ideas from Lisa Calle, whose work is amazing. I have to say that I really love free-motion work (especially feathers), though I have […]

The whole flock

I had intended to make a single block of this design each month as a take-along project for sewing days sponsored by our local guild. However, once I had all of the blocks done — many of them done at home when I simply couldn’t resist working on. them — […]

Two colorful birds sitting on branches: bullfinch, sitting in a grey nest, and house finch.

And the final five …

What can I say? I was on a roll and just couldn’t wait to see how each of these little birds would turn out. So here are the final five birds, all ready to be combined into a quilt top! My Bernina has really had a workout in the past […]

Four multicolored birds sitting on brown branches: toucan, cockatoo, parrot, pine grosbeak. Most have a leaf in two shades of green.

Four more!

I’ve been having so much fun making the various different paper-pieced bird blocks designed by WonderFil last year that I haven’t been able to stop. I’d originally planned to work on them *only* at the monthly (more or less) sewing days sponsored by the local guild, but I keep making […]

Two paper-pieced blocks of a robin with orange head and white and grey body. Each is sitting on a brown branch with a blue background. One block is larger than the other.

How does this happen?

My “bird project” is supposed to be something I’ll work on during sewing days sponsored by my guild. Somehow, though, I just couldn’t resist making the third in the series at home a few days ago — and it’s a very good thing I did! The designs are paper pieced, […]

Small purple zippered case with white top handle and multicolored zipper with matching dog zipper pulls.

Oops!

I’ve been looking for a way to pack jewelry when I go away, but everything I’d seen just didn’t quite work. However, I noticed a pattern on the By Annie site that I thought might do the trick; the pattern is called Treasures and Trinkets. Since it can be made […]